Allentown To Join Information Service On City Operations

January 28, 1985|by TED MELLIN, The Morning Call

How do other cities control an overabundance of ducks and geese? What types of ordinances have been adopted elsewhere to control "cruisers?"

Allentown this month broadened its resources to gather such information by becoming a member of Public Technology, Inc., (PTI), an information and research organization for local governments in the United States and Canada.

The service, which is costing $6,500 this year, supplements the city's link with a similar organization known as the Local Government Information Network (LOGIN). The city has been using LOGIN since October 1983. The cost is $2,800 a year.

Ilene Staff, city research and intergovernmental relations officer, is the liaison for information from the two services.

She said with LOGIN, Allentown has computer access to communicate with other cities to learn how they deal with various problems and issues. She said cities might send Allentown copies of ordinances to serve as models for Allentown legislation.

The system also has 30,000 units of "selector words" to feed into a library to gather information on suchmatters as repairing potholes, developing program budgets, labor-management relations, law enforcement and safety.

PTI is "broader and deeper," Ms. Staff said. She explained that it can provide the same type of information as LOGIN can and more.

"There appears to be some overlap, but I think there may be use in both," she said. "Many cities belong to both and, most important, we will have both systems from now to October and then make a decision which one to keep or keep both."

She said when the city has a query, PTI will define the question and research it by using libraries and electronic data bases - including LOGIN.

Unlike LOGIN, queries to PTI can be made by phone or mail, as well as electronically.

PTI has three networks for similar size cities to share technology advances and cost-cutting improvements. It also distributes monthly newsletters, yearly summaries of technological innovations and other reports.